To Charles E. Seth-Smith
per Samuel C. Thompson
25 June 1873 • London, England (Stenographic draft: CU-MARK, UCCL 00935)
I shall be very glad indeed Ⓐemendationto renew Ⓐemendationthe acquaintance. I am usully Ⓐemendationat home about noonⒶemendation, but after that, like everybody else in London I am uncertainⒶemendation. With many thanks Ⓐemendationfor your form kindnesses Ⓐemendationto me, I am yours very sincerlyⒶemendation.
Thompson added Seth-Smith’s name when, presumably as an afterthought, Clemens decided that he, as well as Sergeant, should receive a fair copy of this dictated response. Lewis Sergeant (1841–1902) was educated at Cambridge. After working as a schoolmaster he became an editor, and was long associated with the Athenaeum and the London Chronicle. He wrote several books, among them Introduction to English Composition (1872) and Elementary Mathematics in Connection with Science and Art Departments (1873). Nothing has been learned about Sergeant’s introduction to Clemens in 1872, except that as secretary of the Anti-Game-Law League he edited the society’s circular, a copy of which Clemens acquired during his 1872 visit to England (CU-MARK). They clearly did renew their acquaintance in 1873, however, for in December, Sergeant, who was then editor of the London Examiner, wrote to Ambrose Bierce that he had obtained his
name & address through Mr Samuel L. Clemens. I desire to have for the Examiner a few articles on contemporary American literature, comprehending as much as possible of the whole field of printed literature; & Mr Clemens thought it possible that you might be willing to do it for me. (8 Dec 73, CtY-BR, in Grenander 1978, 469)
References
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 5: 1872–1873. Edited by Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1997
- Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Conn.
- Grenander, M. E. “California’s Albion: Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Tom Hood, John Camden Hotten, and Andrew Chatto.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 72 (Fourth Quarter): 455–75. 1978
- BBA. British Biographical Archive. A One-Alphabet Cumulation of 324 of the Most Important English-Language Biographical Reference Works Originally Published between 1601 and 1929. Edited by Laureen Baillie and Paul Sieveking. London: K. G. Saur. Microfiche. 1990
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). “Mark Twain Hooks the Persian out of the English Channel.” Letter dated 26 June. New York Herald, 11 July, 3. SLC 1923, 69–78. 1873
Dictation recorded by Samuel C. Thompson in his stenographic notebook, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L5 , 390; N&J1, 546.
Thompson’s notebook was purchased by CU-MARK in 1958 from Dawson’s Book Shop (Los Angeles).
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.
see the commentary for 25 June 73 to Cowley-Squier (1st of 2). Thompson’s self-corrections at 390.4 and 390.8, reported below, have not been transcribed in the text.